Stop Right There
by SmawrtAllek13
Summary: Written for the "Don't Get Too Friendly": A Rose/Scorpius Competition. Scorpius Malfoy is being pressured about his friendship with Rose Weasley. How does he deal with it? Prompt Used: Who I Am Hates Who I've Been -Relient K.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Written for the "Don't Get Too Friendly": A Rose/Scorpius Competition. Prompt: Who I Am Hates Who I've Been -Relient K**

**Disclaimer: The song used as a prompt belongs to Relient K, not me. Anything Harry Potter related belongs to JK Rowling and Warner Bros. not me.**

**Stop Right There**

**Chapter One**

**Scorpius**

I pushed my trunk into the back of my father's car, slammed the lid down, walked to my door, and sat down in my seat. I quickly opened my book and started to read, but before I even finished a sentence, my father asked: "Is anything wrong, Scorpius?" In the last two months I had grown used to those four words, so answering his question wasn't that hard. I just said what I always said.

"No." I replied calmly, not wanting to elaborate and have the truth come out. He looked at me curiously, but turned away when my mother entered the car. There was no doubt in my mind that they would be talking about me on the way home. I didn't care much. Hopefully they _did_ realize that there was something wrong, that I was confused, that I didn't even know whom to call my friends anymore.

**Rose**

"Hey, Al!" I called over the crowds of Hogwarts students and their parents. We had to talk. My favorite cousin jumped and turned around quickly looking everywhere but at my small family of four. Hugo, who had been watching Albus the whole time, started laughing, and he _finally_ saw us. Al smiled and waved at us, then he, Lily, Uncle Harry, and Aunt Ginny started towards us. James was probably already on the train with his friends.

When they reached us, Dad said to Al and Lily, "So, how have you been for the past- what was it?" He turned to Mom, "The past day since we've seen you?" Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Ron, if you're going to _attempt_ to tell a joke, at least make it funny." Said Aunt Ginny. Lily, Al, and I laughed.

"Yeah, seriously, Dad." Said Hugo, sternly, "And make it one you _don't_ say every time we see James, Albus, and Lily. You're embarrassing us." A small smile appeared on his face and one glance at Dad was all it took for me to clamp my hands over my mouth to suppress the fit of giggles that was threatening to overtake me.

"Me?" Dad cried, "Embarrassing you? Never! Oh, and would you mind making people laugh at your own expense instead of mine, Ginny?"

Mum wrapped her arm around his and leaned into him. "But it's so much more funny when she makes fun of you and Harry." Dad and Uncle Harry pretended to be shocked at her words, and I grabbed Al's arm and pulled him away from our families.

"You okay, Rose?" He asked, looking worried.

I decided to ignore his question, and started on what I had wanted to talk to him about all summer. "Okay, so I never said anything all summer about this cause' I always thought that I might hear something from him before we got to Kings Cross, but I didn't."

He looked at me, puzzled. "And…" He asked, moving his head in a way that I clearly took to mean 'get on with it, then.'

Taking a deep breath, I asked, "Has Scorpius written to you at all this summer? You know how on the train ride back at the end of the school year he said he would, but he never wrote me anything this whole summer! Do you think there's something wrong? I mean we only knew him really for a year, but he's our best friend! I sent him a letter, but he didn't write back. Scor wouldn't not write…" As I said the last four words, I tried to convince myself as well. But then, maybe we didn't know him as well as we thought we did, after all.

Albus seemed to be thinking about it for a long time. People had started rushing more, trying to get their trunks and animals onto the train. Near us, I could see our parents giving us strange looks. Finally, Al spoke: "Now that I think about it, Scor hasn't sent an owl to me either. I thought it was pretty odd. Did you ever hear the story about how a house elf was keeping letters from your parents from my dad?"

I nodded, understanding what he meant. "I highly doubt that a house elf would not be letting letters from Scorpius get to us. We don't have any evil thing at Hogwarts that wants to kill us, like your dad had."

"Good point. I suppose there's not much we can do now, though. The train's about to leave. Let's just find him in there." Al said, already heading back toward our families, "Come on! Hurry!"

Shouting our goodbyes while racing towards the train with giant heavy trunks was not easy, but somehow we managed. We hurried through one of the doors that had not yet been closed. Standing by the door's window, we waved out the window toward our family.

In about a minute, the train started moving and we watched the people on the platform get farther and farther away.

"C'mon," I said, "lets go look for Scorpius." Albus and I started down the corridor, saying 'Hi' to old friends, and new ones that we had met last year.

As we walked past a compartment of nervous looking first years that were discussing what they had heard about Hogwarts, we heard a voice call our names. Slowly, we looked in the direction it had come from to see another cousin, Dominique, beckoning us to her. "Hey, guys!" she called, "You want to sit with us?" Her younger brother, Louis, appeared beside her.

"Sure," I nodded toward Al to follow me, "We were just looking for someone. Can we leave our stuff here and come back later?"

"Oh, okay." She said smiling.

After we stored our trunks, Al and I agreed to split up to look for Scor. I went down one side of the train and Albus went back the way we had come, just in case we had missed him. I walked for a few minutes until I came up to an almost empty compartment. There was one boy sitting alone, looking out the window at the passing scenery.

I knocked on the door, he didn't look up, and so I opened the door. "Hey, Scor, how's your summer been?" I asked, sitting down across from him. He didn't answer.

"Um…" I started, unsure of what to say, "You didn't reply to any of our owls. Is everything okay?" Scorpius didn't reply. Again.

We sat there for ten minutes ago, him looking out the window and ignoring any attempt I made at conversation. After a while I gave up and just watched him carefully. There was something…something different about him.

I had been in his compartment for half an hour, sitting in silence. He wasn't going to talk to me. Had I done something? Was there something in my first letter over the summer that had upset him? Finally, I left and headed back to Dominique and Louis' compartment.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to the prompt or the book.**

**Stop Right There**

**Chapter Two**

**Scorpius**

_I woke up the first Saturday after arriving back home from Hogwarts to find my parents gone. There was someone in the house, however. My grandfather, Lucius Malfoy, was sitting at the large dining room table in the seat that had always been my father's. He was holding a letter that had no doubt been delivered this morning after my parents had left._

_When he noticed me, standing shocked in the doorway, he looked me up and down sternly. "Scorpius." He said, curtly._

"_Where are my parents?" I asked without bothering to greet him. My father's father had never seemed to like me much – he didn't seem to like anything much except money – and I, in turn had no affection towards him._

_He ignored my question, instead choosing to lecture me on the "proper pureblood way" of greeting an elder. When I had properly greeted him, he regarded me with a disappointed gaze._

"_Befriending blood-traitors, Scorpius?" he asked, holding up the letter. "Don't you have any _pureblood_ Slytherin friends? If you insist on being friends with _half bloods_ at least have the decency to choose ones of good family. Not those horrible muggle-loving Weasleys."_

_I glared at him, realizing whom the letter must be from. "Can I have my letter?" I asked, knowing that after what he had just said, he probably would not give it back._

_Sneering at me, he began reading _my _letter in a high mocking voice._

"_Dear Scorpius, how's your summer been so far? Anything exciting happen? We went to visit Mum's parents, they're muggle dentists…" He stopped there, shaking his head in disgust._

"_Give me my letter." I repeated in vain. My grandfather looked up at me, smirked, and put the letter into his pocket._

"_You should be very careful who your friends are."_

**One Month Later**

"_Hey, Malfoy!" It was Calvin Bole, hollering at me to come over to were he, Herman Goyle, and Alexander Zabini were all lounging in the grass. I was at his birthday party not by my own choosing, however, but because his parents had invited all the children of wealthy Slytherin families._

_I sighed and started toward him, knowing that I would probably be the center of one of their horrible jokes._

"_Yes, Bole?" I answered, copying his use of last names. The two boys beside him tried to hide their grins, as I approached- now I knew for sure that there would be something highly unpleasant in store for me._

"_So, Malfoy," Zabini started, "You and that Weasley girl, you're together then?"_

_That was the last thing I had ever expected one of them to say. I'm sure my mouth was hanging open because Goyle and Bole started laughing like idiots. "What?" I managed to say._

_Zabini smirked. "You and that Weasley girl." He repeated, "I mean, why else would you hang around with scum like her?"_

"_Malfoy and Weasley! Malfoy and Weasley!" coursed the other two in loud, boisterous voices that I was sure carried to the adults who were enjoying tea on the other side of the lawn._

_I glared at them, all my anger at my grandfather's bigotry and their teasing and strangely…at Rose for causing all of it came flooding out, "Why would I like her? Her whole family is full of blood traitors and her mother's a mudblood! She's just a stupid Gryffindor."_

**Present**

When I entered the Great Hall for breakfast on the first day of term, Rose Weasley was standing, arms crossed, between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. "Scorpius, you are _not_ going to ignore me _again_!" she hissed as she followed me toward the Slytherin table. I ignored her.

She grabbed my arm and I ripped it out of her grasp. _Stupid Gryffindor_. _Stupid Gryffindor_. I kept repeating in my mind.

Behind me, I heard her stumble and I knew my action must have surprised her. I had never lashed out at Rose before. She recovered quickly, however, and I stopped suddenly when she blocked my path. We were in front of my table at that moment and people were starting to stare.

"Get out of my way." I said softly as she glared at me.

"No." She replied, "Not until you tell me what the hell is going on. You didn't return any of the owls Al and I sent you and now you just expect me to not talk to you? I thought we were friends, but you've got a pretty weird way of showing it."

"We're not friends." I coldly responded. I had had enough of her and everyone else, "I could never be friends with a Gryffindor, much less a Weasley. Your whole family is just obsessed with muggles aren't they? I mean, you even go to visit them over summer- those muggle dentists or whatever they're called."

Rose looked surprised and angry, but I kept talking, "I'm not your friend. I never really was to tell you the truth. Come on, I was just a stupid first year who didn't really know anyone. Did you honestly believe that a pureblood Slytherin like me could ever go down and be friends with you? I don't know who you're kidding- smartest witch in our year. You don't even know which people aren't your friends."

With that, I walked to my table and sat beside Timothy Nott.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Stop Right There**

**Chapter Three**

**Scorpius**

I was an idiot. A complete idiot. How did I let my grandfather and those stupid Slytherin boys get to me? Why had I lashed out at Rose?

Sitting alone during break beside the Lake, I saw Rose and Albus Potter looking at me. When they saw me look at them, they turned away. That was when I realized what I had done. I had let my anger at the taunts directed at me consume everything I did. I had gotten mad at Rose because they were taunting me because of our friendship.

I wanted so badly to reconcile with her and Al, to talk to them and tell them why I had acted so inexcusably. But, I couldn't. I just couldn't let them see me like this, all mixed up. I was so pathetic, trying to pretend that I cared to get the other Slytherins off my case instead of standing up for my friendships and myself.

There was a knock on the door and I was suddenly brought back to reality. I didn't know how long I had been alone, sitting- no _hiding_ in this abandoned classroom. Minutes? Hours? Unfortunately, my hiding space had been discovered.

Turning to face the door that had just opened, I saw Rose Weasley's silhouette in the doorway.

"Hey," I said, looking at the floor. I wasn't worthy enough to look at her.

I heard footsteps, and I realized only when I saw her feet in front of my eyes that she had walked up to me. "So, I guess you're not ignoring me anymore?" She asked, and I could sense the small hint of a smile in her voice.

"No," I replied, "Just hiding from you." I looked up at her in time to see her smiling face turn into an expression of puzzlement.

"Why? I just want to talk to you."

I took a deep breath and said: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Rose. I'm sorry for everything I said, for ignoring you, for what happened yesterday. I just…. I just got so confused because of everyone trying to make me into a kind of bigoted pureblood Slytherin that hates Gryffindors. I _want_ to be your friend. I've realized that now. I don't care what anyone says." I smiled sadly, "I hate who I've been for the past few months. The person who didn't respond to your owls, who let those stupid idiots, Zabini, Bole, and Goyle get to me, isn't who I am. I'm sorry and if you don't want me as a friend anymore, I completely understand. I'm sorry for the person I became."

Then, when I expected her to walk out, she did something surprising. Rose _hugged_ me. "Why wouldn't I want you as a friend?" she asked, "You're my best friend. And whatever you said before, you've apologized for it. What kind of a person would I be if I didn't forgive you?"

"I'll never let this happen again. I don't care what anyone else thinks." I said, starting toward the door, "Come on, we don't want to miss Potions, Slughorn loves you, but I doubt he'd be pleased if we came in late and missed his beginning of year speech to the class."

Following behind me, Rose smiled and we headed for the dungeons.


End file.
